


Here in the Smallest Bones

by ArtemisRae



Series: 31 Days Drabbles [26]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - Manga, Community: 31_days, Developing Relationship, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-14
Updated: 2007-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-05 11:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRae/pseuds/ArtemisRae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Al and Mei demonstrate their mutual affections in their own special way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here in the Smallest Bones

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Livejournal community 31_days, with the theme: I love you in different languages.
> 
> No spoilers.

* * *

           It's when everything is said and done and they're all recovering and she's finally making plans to return home – a process that she's put off for as long as she can even despite the family waiting for her – that she comes to visit him once again and they both find that they understand each other a little bit better.  
   
           He's sitting outside in an empty garden – it's still winter, though the afternoon is dry and it looks like it will finally turn to spring soon – soaking in the cold air and reveling in every single sensation he can possibly feel. It's with relief that Al actually finds himself alone for a moment – Ed's been hovering nonstop and Winry's been relentless behind him – and so when he hears the footsteps approaching he mentally sighs and takes in the what will surely be his last sights of the brown and white garden before he's pulled inside.  
   
           It's with surprise that a field of red invades his vision instead, and standing in front of him is little Mei-Chan, holding a bouquet of red roses and beaming at him ecstatically.  
   
           "For your room," she says by way of explanation, presenting the flowers to him.  
   
           "Ah, thank you," he responds, running a fingertip over the edge of a petal and raising his eyebrows when he feels the leathery material under his skin. "You transmuted these?" Then, at the blush that could rival the intensity of the roses, he adds, "You looked at the books I gave you on Amestrian alchemy?"  
   
Mei only nods in response, a distant look in her eyes as she gazes down at the ground and tries her best not to make eye contact. "I wanted to give you something to remember me by, before I left."  
   
Her hands are clenching in her lap, and, frowning, Alphonse reaches down and delicately pulls the right one into his own, uncurling the fingers and ignoring the hiss that emanates from the girl next to him as he studies the digits. There are lines crisscrossing up her fingers, angry, red, and standing out in the grey day.   
   
"You transmuted the thorns by accident, didn't you?" Al breathes. Mei nods again, and watches as Al slides off the bench and kneels on the cold, hard dirt, fumbling in his coat pocket for one of the knives she had given to him.  
   
He starts to trace lines into the earth with it. "Let me show you what I've learned."

* * *


End file.
